As a conventional electronic component in which a conductor formed of a wire rod is embedded in a ceramic sintered compact, there is known an inductor element described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 7-22266. As shown in FIG. 8, an inductor element 500 of this type is a sintered compact in which a plurality of ferrite sheets 501 are stacked. A metal conductor 503 is arranged in the sintered compact. The metal conductor 503 is a rod-shaped member made of silver or copper. Also, a terminal electrode (not shown) is formed on a surface of the inductor element 500.
Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 9, in the inductor element 500, a crack may be generated because the grain boundary is coarsened when crystal grains are grown during firing, in the metal conductor 503 which was linear before firing. Then, if a compression force by contraction of the ferrite sheets during firing is applied to the metal conductor 503 with the crack generated, as shown in FIG. 10, the metal conductor 503 may be broken at a plurality of positions. Accordingly, there has been a problem in which the direct-current resistance value of the inductor element 500 after firing is larger than the direct-current resistance value of the inductor element 500 before firing.